Thanks Joe, that's what I wanted to know. I bought the Orion mini guide scope based on Dons and others advice that modern chips can guide just fine using short focal lengths. Saves payload weight on the mount as well as being easier to transport, and being so small, there is almost no flexure issue to worry about. Not using relatively thin guidescope rings and long nylon adjustment screws on an 80mm guidescope further reduces the flex issue. I also have a dual-scope side-by-side plate so I can guide with a large scope if ever needed. It's a very robust, rigid arrangement. Training the PEC with the autoguider on the main scope is a good idea. On 12/14/11, Joe Bauman <josephmbauman@yahoo.com> wrote:

Chuck, The autoguider doesn't negate the need for PEC; the autoguider improves the tracking beyond what PEC can. You can use an autoguider function with the main telescope, rather than the guide scope, for PEC training. I think it's better not to use the guide scope for training because there's always the possibility of a little flexture between the two scopes.